Chocolates & Balloons
by Ms Western Ink
Summary: Misao's favorite time of year was making chcolates for her school idol, Shinomori... but when she hands them to him, he strips her world bare. [AxM] [AU!]
1. Chapter 1

Chocolates & Balloons

A Mini-Series by Western Ink

* * *

AN: A tale of 1st person insanity. AU - 100 modern! Read at your own risk...

* * *

"I want a lollipop."

I smacked my lips at the end of the statement.

The entire class turned to look at me like I'd sprouted a second head. Maybe one with evil red eyes and floppy ears, who knows.

I smiled at them, unruffled at the sudden attention.

"Hey, I'd give you guys one if I had them, but I don't have any. Somebody give me something to eat," I whined.

"We ought to put up a sign, _'Feed Makimachi 500 Yen'."_

I turned an irritated glare toward the smart mouth in question, Sagara Sanosuke.

"Shut up, you limp noodle."

"Hey!" He stood up, offended, and some of the guys snickered.

One was discreetly smirking, he watched with avid attention their growing argument, his violet eyes were lit with amusement.

"You want to say that again, weasel?" he threatened.

"I got a few more names for you, idiot." I stood up too as though ready to hop over a few desks and wrestle with him right there in the middle of the classroom floor.

The teacher chose to make his appearance and told us to settle ourselves down. I grinned as though I'd won and stuck out my tongue at Sanosuke.

* * *

After class, Kaoru was yanking on my sleeve before I'd barely gotten out of my chair. 

"Are you nuts, Misao? Telling the instructor that your pet parrot got your homework as cage liner by accident and that you weren't going in there to rescue it? You don't have a freaking parrot."

I shrugged. "So? Someone, somewhere, has a parrot that is using someone's homework as a sort of litter pan, right?"

Kaoru just stared at me. "There is something seriously wrong with you."

I shook my head, grabbing my book. "Nah, I'm 100 original stock. Everyone else is carbon copy bland."

I spotted one of the school hotties on his way down the hall and paused right center in the doorway ignoring anyone behind me forcing them to come to an abrupt stop. He glanced toward me and I blew the white haired stud kiss. He grinned and kept walking.

"Makimachi... If you're done flirting, can you move please?"

I recognized the voice without looking and instead of moving, I tilted my head back to glance back and up.

Chilly blue eyes stared down at me, a frown upon his perfect lips.

"I'd flirt with you too, Shinomori-san, but you don't wink at me."

I pouted but he didn't show any sign of softening at the statement.

I sighed, defeated. "Of course, Shinomori-san, I will move."

I stepped out of the way and beside me, Kaoru yanked on my sleeve again. I growled at her.

"Stop yanking, hey, look there's that-" she put a hand over my mouth before I could utter the words 'annoying geek bait'.

Himura Kenshin was not one of my favorite people.

Largely because one Kamiya Kaoru never shut up about him. He wasn't the best thing since sliced bread or whatever you wanted to compare it to, whatever she thought about it. Now, Shinomori Aoshi, that was another story altogether. Of course, he wasn't very social, at least Himura was friendly. The other school hottie that I flirted with was Yukishiro Enishi. Oh, baby!

Yeah, he was cute.

He winked at me when I flirted with him, but he did that with all the girls. It was Shinomori I wanted to crack. He wouldn't wink at me. He wouldn't even smile. He just sort of... _looked _at me.

Yeah, sounded fascinating didn't he?

He was, no matter how boring I made him sound. Although, maybe he was a little... dry. He just needed some excitement. I smiled, grabbed Kaoru and ran for the door.

"Soccer star coming through, move it!" I shouted.

It wasn't untrue, I was the soccer star. The girl's team was going all the way this year with me as the star player. Kaoru and me, we ran outside. I laughed. It was almost Valentine's.  
Last year's Valentine's sucked. Royally.

"Happy, happy, happy, happy!"

"Stop it, you're embarrassing me!"

I turned toward the girl next to me. "Kaoru, you're no fun."

"I'm no fun? You're acting like a junior high schooler! Ugh. Don't do that."

"How can you say that? It's almost Valentine's. We get to make chocolates for our sweeties!"

The other girl scowled at me. "We don't have sweeties; we have fantasy boyfriends, who in reality don't actually know we exist."

The streets were relatively crowded and positively all the chocolate shops were flooded with school age girls wanting supplies. I had bought early. Kaoru was being far less enthusiastic about the whole thing. We were first year high school students at a reasonable school. Nothing fancy, nothing really academic. Nothing, in essence, for our parents to brag over.

Both Kaoru and I came from old traditional families that had a strong history of fighting arts. Kaoru's parents had a lucrative business teaching students. My family, however, had a restaurant and access to the family's dojo, really an old building attached to the back of the house, was limited to family only.

"They notice us," I pouted.

"Shinomori only notices you because you throw yourself at him every time he walks into the room."

I stopped walking and growled. "I do not throw myself at him!"

"Yes, you do. Really, Misao, you're worse than the fan girls who hide in the bushes with cameras."

"I am not a fan girl! Take that back!"

Kaoru crossed her arms and refused as those around us cast curious glances in our direction.

I fumed.

"Well, fine, being Shinomori-san's fan girl is better than drooling over that wimpy Himura guy. Ugh! What a loser!"

Kaoru tensed. "He is not a loser, take that back!"

I stuck my tongue out at the other female.

"Newsflash, Himura is a loser. Geek bait."

"Geek bait! Oh! That does it! Makimachi Misao, we are not friends anymore!"

She stomped off and I did the same moving the opposite direction.

It was nothing.

Just the usual Monday afternoon argument.

* * *

"Not calling me a wet noodle, now are you?" 

I laughed. "You idiot, I called you a _limp_ noodle, see the difference?"

He tensed and his friends' smirks slipped. They were a local group of no one's that hung around with Sano. He liked to threaten to kick my ass, he hadn't yet. Hadn't even come close. Really, I don't think he wanted to fight me because I was a girl, but some of his cronies... Well... They didn't care I was a girl.

Not three weeks ago one of them had reached across a table when my head was turned and punched me right in the face. My entire jaw ached for almost a freaking week. My coach had been pissed. He thought I was getting into fights. Which... wasn't untrue, just mostly untrue.

Yeah, so maybe I wasn't a model student. As it happens, Sano was there and kicked the absolute crap out of the guy. Anyway... presently...

"Kick her ass, Sano!" One of them bellowed.

I made a face at him, daring him to try it. I wasn't really aware of it when someone stepped up behind me. Not until Sano's gaze shifted from me, downwards, to the other person, upwards.

"Are you making trouble again, weasel?"

Takani Megumi, bane of the existence of all female students. Well, except me, of course. A pretty face could simply not compare to my sports star popularity power.

"You making trouble too, rooster?" she asked a teasing lilt to her voice.

"Don't weasels eat roosters?" I asked absently.

Sano bristled and Megumi laughed.

I turned. "Boring. You can try to kick my ass another day."

Sano, school thug, and Megumi, popularity princess, seemed to have some sort of teasing/romance thing going on. Don't ask me. I didn't care. If Megumi liked Sano, great.  
If she tried to get her hands on Shinomori, I'd kill her. Yukishiro? Well, he was a free-ranging flirt. Anyone or no one could have him; I didn't really care either way. As long as he remained a free agent, I could flirt with him and that made me happy. I turned to head out of the billiard hall. Not my kind of place usually, honestly, I was just going around looking for trouble.

I shouldn't.

I know.

Didn't mean I wouldn't.

I headed out and none of the cronies followed. I might have been disappointed, maybe not. As I headed down the street I decided to skip through an alleyway that would cut my trip almost in half. Okay, maybe not in half, but close enough. I sighed, disappointed with the entire day.

* * *

Shinomori Aoshi was the heart throb of my existence. He was also a waiter, a damn sexy waiter at that. He worked at a café and I admit, I went there just to have him bring me tea. Usually a brownie too, I was a sweet fiend. 

Anyway, Valentine's day was a totally lame holiday.

I mean, yeah, I said that and all, but I was still making chocolates for my sweetie. The depressing thing was really that he wasn't my heart throb alone; he was the heart throb of all of Japan as far as I was concerned. My chances of being noticed were slim, so maybe I really did throw myself at him, I don't know.

I still intended to give him chocolates. Even if he did receive enough boxes of the milk chocolately heaven to rot his teeth out in a day.

Anyway, as I sat in the cafe staring out the window contemplating how to out-do all his other fan girls someone plopped into the chair across from me.

"Yo! Weasel, buy me some food, right?"

I rolled my eyes seeing junior-annoyance Yahiko. He was sort of a neighborhood kid, I'd known him forever and he was a couple years younger than me. Always asking me to buy him stuff and 90 percent of the time it was some kind of food.

"No."

His expression fell as he tried to plead. "Oh, come on Misao, you've got money!"

"So do you!" I shot back.

Yahiko had a little job working for his girlfriend's family at this restaurant. He was a good saver; he got everyone else to buy his crap for him. Actually, that was a good plan, I should try that.

"Okay, okay, how about this? I got a hot piece of Shinomori gossip and I'll trade it to you for free, _if _you buy me a snack."

"Shinomori-san gossip?" I leaned forward.

Yahiko got around and he was always finding out stuff. I had a Shinomori diary that I kept various things in, sightings and just little Shinomori-facts. He nodded, grinning smugly.

"We got a deal?"

I nodded eagerly.

"Shinomori doesn't like chocolate."

"WHAT?"

I had given him chocolates last year; I wonder what happened to them?

"What do you mean he doesn't like chocolate? How do you know?" I asked.

He shrugged. "Heard his friends ribbing him about it and how he only likes 'white chocolate' and that white chocolate isn't really chocolate at all because they taste so different and stuff."

White chocolate?

No!

I didn't have supplies for that!

I slammed some money on the table and took off.

I had to change all my plans to do white chocolate, but it wasn't that hard I guess. I did about two inch chocolates from a candy store mold in the shapes of balloon bunches and little hearts.

Not everyone will give you balloon shaped chocolates for Valentine's. I was, of course, unique.

* * *

I was eager for Valentine's. I wasn't sure when I would give him my chocolates, but I would figure out the "right" moment. I toted them around with me the whole day. I finally did manage to decide on the moment I wanted. It was in the afternoon, before he went into work. I caught him outside. He didn't seem surprised to see me, but his expression looked pretty much the same as it always did. I didn't think much of it. 

"Good afternoon, Shinomori-san," I chirped.

He just nodded at me.

"Here, for you." I held out my package to him.

It was tiny really, compared to some of the other things I'd seen girls give to boys. Kaoru was with me, but she stood a foot or so back. She never did like to get too close to him, don't ask me why.

He took the tiny package that I had spent virtual _hours_ on and I felt a distinct burst of happiness as it slipped from my fingers.

"Makimachi," he started his voice even. "Stop following me around."

I sort of just blanked.

What?

Following him around?

I didn't follow him around!

I opened my mouth to say so.

"I'm not interested in having a girlfriend now."

Did I miss something? I wasn't asking him to be my boyfriend, although I would've liked that, certainly. He turned away and stepped into the cafe. Just inside the cafe was a trash can on the right side. I saw his hand move and something fell from his fingers into the depressing abyss of the garbage.

"Is my face green, Kaoru?"

She moved up beside me and laid a hand on my shoulder.

"Of course it's not green!"

No, of course not. I was trying to focus on anything and trying desperately not to cry. The topic didn't even matter.

I felt...

"Come on, let's go." I just wanted to leave. I wanted to leave yesterday. I wanted the side walk to swallow me and melt my bones away.

"Misao?"

Kaoru's voice was the worst kind of irritating sympathy. I didn't want to be sympathized with. I wanted to cry and simultaneously kill something. He'd just thrown it away. My chocolates and balloons were in the trash.

The trash.

Garbage.

Not even worthy of being looked at.

Kaoru escorted me home and I talked the whole way there. Maybe Kaoru got the message that I didn't want her to say anything after I interrupted her 'it'll be fine' speech a couple of times.

Every time, actually.

I walked toward my room at the back of the house and I just couldn't take it. My eyes filled and tears spilled over, burning my cheeks. My chest hurt, I felt like I couldn't breathe. My throat ached from trying to hold off the tears.

I fell into bed, trying to sob my tears silently into my pillow.

Sometimes, life sucked and I hated it.

* * *

AN: I only decided to continue this and not delete it because I think Misao is so completely cute in this fic. 


	2. Chapter 2

**Chocolates & Balloons**

**Part II**

* * *

It was hard to be my normal bouncy self, it really was. I felt broken, wounded inside where I couldn't reach to fix. It was really tough. I did my best to bounce around and act normal, but I felt fake. Everything I did felt exaggerated. I really felt like going home and crawling in bed and just staying there. I heard snickering.

"Shut up!" I pounded my fist on the desk dramatically. "Bring me lollipop tributes, peasants!"

Okay, sometimes it was easy to be bouncy and forget. My classmates, the boys my age, were kind of cool. They teased me, I acted dramatically and everyone got a kick out of it.  
Needlessly to say, I wasn't a great academic but neither was Kaoru and I got better grades than her still.

Heh.

Anyway, lollipops were my favorite candy. I liked them more than chocolate sometimes.

I hated white chocolate.

I never wanted to see it again.

The thought of my chocolate at the bottom of a trash can somewhere did awful things to my insides. It hurt in ways I didn't know was possible until then. I still saw Shinomori, he was in my class, I couldn't avoid him, but I guess I kind of avoided him now. I didn't go to the cafe anymore and I didn't smile and flirt with him either, I just sort of bounced around him as though he wasn't there.

No easy task, either.

My other heart throb, Yukishiro, well, I still flirted with him. He still winked and grinned at me, I didn't feel totally lost. It had only been a week.

"Class, you are dismissed, Makimachi stay."

I groaned softly as the others stood, gathered their things and left. I turned my head down so that my forehead was pressed against the desk. I didn't want to see even Shinomori's shadow pass my desk. I just couldn't face him right now. When the noise faded I looked up to see my instructor, Takamoto-san waiting. He was our Biology teacher, a class I loathed.

"Yes, Takamoto-sensei?" I chirped, smiling gaily.

Always good to smile, even if it doesn't work.

"Your homework presentation for the last few weeks has been very poor, Makimachi-san. I want to see improvement by Friday or I am notifying your guardian and your coach, am I understood?"

I sighed. He was a boring teacher, but I suppose he knew his Biology. He didn't really care for team sports though, which was bad for me. What choice did I have?

"Yes, sir."

Act suitably cowed and get out was the best course of action. I followed it routinely. My grades wouldn't improve, maybe my homework would. I certainly had time for it; I thought as I gathered my books and headed out. The halls were empty. I didn't think he'd kept me for that long. Ah, well...

I wandered down to the shoe lockers and opened my little cubicle to get my shoes. Club had been canceled earlier due to rain. They had played in soppy weather before and it had resulted in team injuries.

I didn't want to go anywhere. I sighed, slammed the door closed and sat down on the bench behind me. Turning, I laid myself down, my books already set aside I propped my feet up on them and stared at the ceiling. So, what to do then?

Soccer was canceled... I wasn't following around Shinomori anymore; my chocolates had been thrown away... I closed my eyes.

"Yo!"

My eyes snapped open to see a youthful face hovering over my own. "Eew! Yahiko, get away!" I reacted impulsively.

He moved away with a grin. "Hey, haven't seen you around."

"What are you doing here? This is a _high school_."

He scoffed and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "So? I walked right in, anyway, been looking all over for you. I got new information and I'll even sell for cheap since I haven't seen you in a while."

I shook my head. I wasn't buying and Yahiko looked a bit startled.

"What? You're not stalking Shinomori anymore?"

I shot up and punched him in the gut. "I'm not a stalker... or a fan girl!"

He raised an eyebrow, his hands over his belly dramatically. "Since when?"

I growled and reached for my books and began to stalk away.

"Yo, dim wit!" he called back to me.

"What?"

"You forgot your shoes."

* * *

Stalker. 

Fan girl.

I laid on my bed that night and thought about my homework and my coach and school and Shinomori. I had the Shinomori journal at my side on the bed. I had ripped half the pages to pieces in angry stints.

I was a stalker, wasn't I? Some completely abnormal, hormonal girl far too immature for such a cool guy like Shinomori. I rolled over onto my stomach and buried my face into my bedding. I was such a loser.

The abrupt knocking on my bedroom door was ignored. I knew it was Kaoru. She always knocked like she was an ape pounding with her forehead. The door slid open a moment later and Kaoru appeared faithfully. I watched her smile fade as she caught sight of me.

"Misao?"

No. No Kaoru sympathy. I sat up and gathered the shreds of my anger and dropped them all into the litter basket. I'm not sure if Kaoru knew what the tiny blue book had once been, but she didn't ask. The death of a love... the tragic rending of a one-sided love maybe was more appropriate. Maybe I ought to try sending him poems...

No.

Forget Shinomori.

He was a stone, cold and impersonal, lackluster in personality. He didn't want to be loved, not by me, even if it wasn't love; it was something, wasn't it? I looked away and then hurriedly glanced toward Kaoru.

"Heh, forgot about you for a second there. What's up?"

"Just came to see how you were. Suki called my house, she was wondering why you weren't at practice, said that no one here was answering the phone."

So, what? She just comes waltzing over?

"Well, it's not like you to miss soccer practice so I-"

"WHAT? I was told it was canceled this morning!" I shot to my feet. "I missed practice!"

Kaoru blinked. "They announced at lunch and there was a notice on the bulletin board."

"Huh... wow... weird day." I flopped back onto my bed and stared at the ceiling. I was going to be chewed out for an hour tomorrow by the coach and I hadn't done my homework. Takamoto would eat me for dinner.

Maybe I should just quit high school and become a waitress...

Erg, no... that wasn't such a good idea.

"Misao, are you okay? The Shinomori thing is really bothering you, isn't it? You want to talk about it?"

"No," I answered. I didn't want to acknowledge that it had even happened. I didn't know anyone named Shinomori. I hadn't humiliated myself. I hadn't had my heart broken on a downtown sidewalk.

None of it had happened.

Only it had and I couldn't seem to recover. It clung to me like the remnants of broken glass embedded deep and painfully into the skin and I was trying to remove them by shaking.

"Misao-"

"I don't want to talk about it, Kaoru."

She sighed and brought a hand around from behind her. I hadn't noticed she was standing that way… Clasped in her fingers was an envelope.

"This was downstairs taped to your front door. I brought it up for you."

She handed me the envelope and I was about to accuse her of reading my mail when I noticed it was sealed. The handwriting was unfamiliar, but I tore it open anyway.

"_Shinomori quit his job at the café, too many girls came there and bothered him. Instead, he got a new job at a sports supply place like four streets down, can't remember the name." _

I crumbled it and tossed it into the trash. Stupid Yahiko. I don't care where he's working! I'm not going there… I sighed.

"What was it?"

"Nothing," I mumbled. "Yahiko being stupid."

"Oh!" Kaoru's eyes lit up. "I forgot, I meant to tell you earlier, I was talking to Yahiko this morning before school. He told me that day you gave Shinomori the chocolates that he stuck them in his pocket."

"What?"

Kaoru nodded. "I know we saw him toss something, so when Yahiko told me, I made him give me specs on the little package. It was in blue paper with the shimmering green bow, that's basically what he said."

I felt my hope waver. "Basically?"

Kaoru shrugged. "Well, you know Yahiko… he said something like '_it was blue with this stupid green ribbon on it. Way too girly for someone to give a guy, if a girl tried to give me that I'd laugh in her face_.'"

I smiled. "Like a girl would give him anything anyway."

"So maybe he didn't toss your chocolates away."

I shook my head. "Even if he didn't, he told me to stop bothering him. Jiya yelled at me when I got home because Takamoto called and Omasu and Okon are teasing me about some guy I didn't even notice until this afternoon… and he's a dork at that." I sat up. "I wonder if I could get Yukishiro to come down to the Aoiya?"

Kaoru rolled her eyes. "That guy is a public menace, stop flirting with him."

I grinned. "You're just sore because he asked you out that one time and then changed his mind before you could answer."

Kaoru puffed up and I knew the argument was on. It was really easy to lure her away from touchy topics. Really easy.

"Yeah right! More like him realizing he wasn't good enough for me!"

"Right, which is why geek bait is falling at your feet, isn't it?"

Kaoru's face reddened and I almost felt bad. _Almost._ She was really too much fun.

"Oh! I am so out of here! When you rejoin the _polite world_, let me know!"

She trounced out and slammed the door. Another day, another argument… but what to do about Shinomori?

* * *

Consumed with indecision and teenage angst, I did my homework and reported to homeroom the next morning, bright and early. No sooner had I walked in did I notice that Kaoru was not there, geek bait was, and Shinomori _was _there, a book laid open on his desk. But wait… he looked different.

I blinked.

Where on earth had those glasses come from? They were thin, black wire frames in slender oval shapes. Wow, they looked good on him… I wondered briefly if any of my schoolmates had the guts to call him "four eyes" and if he would punch them squarely in the face.

I laughed and a few people looked up. Then, realizing I was ogling and that was a no-no, I hurriedly sat down. Bad girl, Makimachi, I told myself. Bad girl. I pulled my homework from where I had tucked it inside my math text and prepared myself for class.

Grade, grades… grades sucked.

"Yo, Makimachi!"

I glanced back at Sano and yelped as something flew toward my face. The arm I was leaning my weight on slipped as I tried to dodge the thing, a ball, headed at my head and I fell.

"MAKIMACHI!"

I landed with a sickening thud, one arm bent awkwardly and I laid there dazed a moment as my classmates gathered around me. Ah… something was wrong with my arm… was it my wrist?

A pair of arms scooped me up and I glanced back to see my coach was holding me.

"Coach?" What was he even doing here? Had he seen me fall? Where had he come from?

OH NO! He was going to kick me off the team for the homework thing! Not fair! I only had one day to improve.

One day!

"Oh, no…" he muttered, holding my wrist. "Oh no… Oh no… We don't need this."

He got me up onto my feet and now my wrist was starting to hurt and I could see it was visibly swelling. My place on the school team was forgotten abruptly as fear replaced it, was it broken?

"SAGARA, DETENTION FOR A MONTH!" he roared before whisking me out the doorway.

I was taken to the local hospital, examined, x-rayed, and then had my wrist set in a cast.

Peachy.

The coach, before I was taken away, told me in somber words that if my wrist was broken I was off the team for a couple of weeks. Translated, that meant my season was over entirely. There were only three weeks left in the playing season and my wrist wouldn't heal by then. Our teams chances of winning our last three matches dimmed considerably as I considered myself both the team star and morale.

They were doomed, but I dared not say that aloud. I decided, as I was walked in the hospital doors, that I would carry myself down to the playing field and yell the whole match, every match. Maybe that would help…

I would be a one-girl cheering squad!

By the time I got home, Okina had thoroughly chewed me out despite my protests that it hadn't been my fault. He was under the odd and semi-true impression that I'd been fighting. I hadn't, I mean, not today, but on other occasions I did, certainly.

I was a bouncy, fighting, um… girl machine? Well, that didn't matter so much. I retreated to my room and spent an hour tossing and turning on my bed trying unsuccessfully to sleep.

My life was weird and loopy. Shinomori told me I was a bother. He may or may not have thrown away my chocolates. Yahiko was annoying me with info tidbits. My wrist was now fractured, not broken after all, and I was off the team for the rest of the season.

Briefly I thought I ought to do something with a bit less contact. Something harmless like a board-game club or video or gardening. Eventually, I did fall asleep and had weird, weird dreams about swords.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chocolates & Balloons**

Part III

* * *

"Oh! Misao! The whole school has heard!"

Kaoru accosted me the moment I stepped out my front door.

"What? What are you doing here this early!" I yelped as she grabbed my arm.

"Huh? Oh, well I couldn't sleep last night, so I had an early start today. Yesterday, after you got taken away the principal actually announced over the loudspeakers that you were out for the rest of the season!"

I blinked. "Really? I got a whole announcement? Whoo hoo! So anything interesting happen?"

Kaoru thought, tapping her finger against her bottom lip. "Well, Takamoto-sensei wanted to know why you weren't in class. Apparently, he hadn't heard the announcement."

"Maybe he just doesn't like me. He gives me little evil glares when he thinks I'm not looking."

Kaoru's expression almost defied words. "Did you bump your head? Takamoto barely takes his gaze off his books to teach us! He doesn't have time to give you evil little glares."

"Kaoru, you silly girl… he can and he does, you just don't pay enough attention." I smirked to myself.

"Are you saying you pay more attention than me? Than ME?" her voice gradually rose in pitch and by now we were half way down the street. I could see that red haired geeky guy that Kaoru liked and in order to distract her from what would, no doubt, become a scene, I called out.

"YO! Himura!"

He paused and turned back and Kaoru abruptly quieted, her mouth snapping closed so quick her teeth snapped. Her face went from a red flush to a faint pale, eyes wide in potential mortification.

"Hey! Walk with us!"

I was totally shameless most days… or all of my days perhaps. Himura didn't seem averse to the suggestion and waited while we caught up. He was alone today, I noted, usually he was walking with _someon_e.

"Good morning, Makimachi-san, Kamiya-san."

I nodded. "You know they're having a festival over by the Kamo river, something about fish, are you going?"

He paused and sort of gaped like a fish. Oh, he'd fit right in at the festival for sure. Was the question so shocking? I almost laughed at how astonished he looked. So astonished he actually stopped walking. I was puzzled as to why and the look on his face wasn't giving anything way.

"Um… Himura?" I asked hesitantly. What was his problem?

"Ah… I… hadn't thought about it much," he admitted. He took an odd sidelong glance at Kaoru.

I blinked quickly. Did he think I was about to ask him out? Kaoru looked a bit flushed again and I could see the warning signs of irritation on her part. There were little tics in her expression.

"Right," I continued on. "So, think about it right now."

Again, he glanced at Kaoru and the wheels in my brain shifted into high gear. Oh! This was so good!

"Well," he started. "Maybe."

He stared to walk again and I followed. Kaoru was glaring at me so I didn't look at her. I followed Himura through the halls and all the way to the classroom. I even followed him to his desk.

"Uh… Makimachi…" I could see his discomfort, he was practically sweating, it was so great!

"Right! Did you decide yet? The festival will be so pretty, you just _have_ to go!" I gushed. I felt like an idiot, but I was also having fun, so, green light. I'd continue until I got my answer. I was persistent enough.

"Excuse me."

My little world, perfectly bright and wonderful, darkened abruptly. That voice was-!

Shinomori!

I all but whipped around and there he stood, tall, dark, beautiful, and positively glaring.

Glaring?

"Excuse me," he repeated.

Oh! Right, right… I forgot he sat in my row like four seats back. Heh. Why didn't he just go around?

I forced myself to keep my mouth shut and instead merely stepped aside. He brushed by me, our clothes rustling against one another. Was… was that on purpose or was it just close? Shinomori and I had never well… _touched_ before, not in any way at all. He was so picky about people getting too close. I sighed and turned back to Himura.

I was NOT thinking about Shinomori! I wasn't.

I leaned down and dropped my elbows on Himura's desk. "So, about the festival… going? Hmmmmm?"

He glanced around, left and right. The classroom was practically empty. Shinomori was behind us, Kaoru was close by glaring daggers and there were a few others at the front who were reading.

"Well," he started, yet again, looking twice more uncomfortable as more people began to mill about in the hall. I glanced toward the doorway, but there was no one really looking. I refused to glance up and see if Shinomori was staring.

"Festival!" I snapped.

Now I was just getting irritated. I turned around and faced Kaoru and spoke loudly. "Sorry, Kaoru, I guess he doesn't want to go."

Her face turned cherry red and I chuckled, all but skipping to my seat. She'd kill me later.

* * *

In a span of time that was really surprising to me several things happened. Yahiko started bugging me even more, Himura asked out Kaoru, Yukishiro started dating a really snotty girl who wouldn't let me flirt with him, and I, of course, was off the soccer team and boyfriend-less. 

Kaoru made it a point of her week to call me and gush over Himura. I would set the phone down and instead play card games on my computer occasionally picking up to see if she was still gabbing about him. Several times she hung up on me and I'd have rather been hung up on than to hear about that idiot boy she was dating.

Maybe I was being a bad friend. Maybe it was immaturity on my part. Maybe it was jealousy, but it was something and it wouldn't stop eating at me and I did the best I could with it. I couldn't give anything else, what did she want, anyway? She could get a new best friend if she wanted, one that had a boyfriend and they could simultaneously annoy one another, but I wasn't having any part of that.

I was convinced my life was horrible. For a while I even stopped doing my homework. That depressing escapade resulted in almost two weeks worth of detentions from Takamoto-sensei who had had enough of my "slacking off". Twice, I got into an argument with Sanosuke in class, four times I got caught arguing with Yukishiro's girlfriend in the hall and once I'd been turned in for fighting in the school yard. That had been especially stupid because it freaking killed my wrist, the pain was amazing. Never fight when injured, it was a good 'you're being stupid' lesson. Okina yelled and I was grounded. Detention and then sent to my room. I was forced to have two meals a day for two weeks as he forbid me from eating dinner with the family. Lousy… those two weeks sucked.

As March began I was not feeling good and trying to arrange it so that things only got better instead of worse.

Almost a week into March I was feeling a bit icky about school. One of my instructors was making us read a play and he was insistant upon us acting it out on the stage. In one day she had forced me to participate, and then she barred me from the stage, banished me to backstage before then deciding I was a "menace" and banned me from the project. I was put in charge of placing school flyers. Yay for me. Batty old-

"Makimachi. This yours?"

I turned back to see Yukishiro was standing behind me. In his hands was a purple cup that had my name and a picture of a scowling elf. Inside the rim of the cup it read in flowery letters "drink me!" It was a bit of an odd gift from Kaoru one year… it had been tucked into my lunchbox, how had Yukishiro gotten it? I didn't ask, I just took the cup, nodded, thanked him absently and walked off. My arms were full enough with the stupid play flyers I didn't need to carry around a cup, too!

How I managed that isn't even important. Actually I stopped by my locker and tossed it in. By the time I got back to the main hall I was feeling even gloomier but my gloom had given way to irritation and now I stomped like an angry elephant daring people to get in my way. No one did. The fight I desperately wanted didn't materialize until Sano appeared. I could've crooned in happiness and had the whole school stare at me like I was a psycho, so I kept that part inside.

"Yo, weasel, what's up?" He grinned at me with that half-cocked grin and I felt my anger give way to amusement and annoyance. It was odd mixture of feelings but it was good. I dropped the flyers gaining some odd satisfaction from seeing a few of them fly, swooping haphazardly to the ground. Most of them landed in the stack. Bleh.

"You know what? I'm tired of you grinning at me like an idiot. I'm going to punch that expression right off your face!"

His grin widened and he actually had the audacity to laugh at me. I advanced menacingly, as menacingly as I could and he pushed away form the locker. His lanky body was so smooth moving, I hadn't noticed it before now. Not that he was any comparison for Shinomori. Shinomori could pound him into cement, I grinned at that and it caused Sano to tense a bit.

"Oh, you really want it, eh? Come on, weasel, always wanted to see what you were really made of."

I launched into attack and he dodged and dodged and dodged. Not once in the course of my would-be assault did he hit me back. Not until I heard footsteps did he switch from offense to defense and then I was slammed back against an open locker.

My head slammed against the metal rim and my mouth shot open, a gasp of pain escaping my parted lips. Hitting the locker didn't hurt as much as it had that my fractured wrist had just been slammed, along with my head, into the locker. The pain evaporated as Sano swooped down and crushed his lips against mine in a brief, shattering kiss.

Then he was gone.

I was instantly cold. Cold all over and hot. It was an experience beyond words.

Kissed.

By Sanosuke! After the shock, I was sort of repulsed.

**  
Eeeeewww**!

My first kiss stolen by that dirty mouthed hooligan?

I fell back against the locker again having taken to swaying briefly on my feet. My skin felt warm along my cheeks and I pulled my arms across my chest. What on earth had he been thinking?

I looked up suddenly fearing we had been witnessed in that embarrassing display. The worst thing happened…

The worst thing ever.

Standing a few feet away was Shinomori.

He just stood there. His eyes were half lowered. He wasn't wearing a particular expression, he didn't look tense, he didn't look angry, he didn't look like anything, he was just there and well… looking.

"Uhm…" I shifted. My nerves flared and tingled in my body. Ah! How could he just stand there? I had to get away…_away from him!_

I whirled around and just ran. Whatever happened to those flyers was the last thing on my mind. It wouldn't be for long, the next morning the instructor would verbally rip me open in front of the class, including Shinomori.

Could I be any more lucky?

* * *

AN: I think 2 more chapters. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Chocolates and Balloons **

**Part IV**

* * *

Where I thought things could only get better, they had gotten worse. Kaoru was off in daydream land, I didn't know how to act around Sano now and had taken to avoiding him slightly and Shinomori… oh, don't even ask. That was positive misery. What he must think of me…

Yukishiro had ceased to be a source of entertainment and I was getting more and more annoyed with my wrist cast. It itched and I couldn't scratch it.

"_Don't you shove things down inside that cast, young lady!"_ I was warned.

I tried to listen, I did. Sometimes I even complied… sometimes I didn't. As long as the itching stopped. Once I even slammed my wrist against a table in an attempt to make it hurt so it wouldn't itch anymore.

"…"

I didn't try that again.

What was with Sano anyway? Didn't he have a thing for Megumi? Had she finally told him to get lost? I'd have told him a long time ago, I thought flippantly… but then… he wasn't so bad, I guess. I don't know… who knows anything? I sighed heavily and collapsed into my chair in the classroom. My homework was "sub-par" as Omasu had described it and I didn't really care. Takamoto couldn't complain as long as I turned something in… or… wait, he could but I'd ignore it until he threatened me again. Not the smartest move, but…

"Makimachi-san, can I see you please?"

I lifted my head and strained my neck to see if that was who I _thought_ it was. No way! There was no way I was being called out of class before it even began! Standing at the door was Takamoto, thick square glasses, evil little glare, hand on hip and everything.

Crap.

I was being called before class started.

"This is so unfair," I whined as I dragged my feet to the door. Sano slipped by me on the way but I stared straight ahead.

_If you don't see them, they don't exist_, I told myself. Takamoto kept on staring right at me… I wondered what'd I'd done while I tried to forget there were now two guys in the class I wanted to avoid and one out of class if I counted Yahiko.

"The world is against me," I muttered. I looked up as I heard what sounded like keys jingle to see that Shinomori was standing between the doorway, me, and Takamoto, who was behind him.

"Shinomori-san, you are such bad luck!" I exclaimed without thinking. This whole downward spiral had started after he threw away my precious candies.

For a moment, he looked surprised.

"To your seat, Shinomori-san. Makimachi-san, stop stalling."

I scowled and stepped around Shinomori.

"The world is against me," I muttered again. Before I was whisked out of the classroom I turned back and smiled. "Hey all don't have too much fun without me. You can leave your candy tributes for my hard work on my desk and I shall be back soon!"

"Hard work at what?" someone wise-cracked.

I tossed a glare in that direction.

"Entertaining your empty heads, that's very hard work. I'll have you know I spend-"

"Makimachi!"

"Huh? Oh… right, yeah, I hadn't forgotten about you, I just wanted to say goodbye."

He glared and I smiled softly.

"It's not like I was stalling or anything."

"Come along," he snapped shortly.

I sighed.

"Are you going to assign me a tutor or something? I know I haven't been doing great, but I am passing and all. Not like that guy who sits next to me, Seta-san, he's not doing so well in your subject. I saw his last test grade…"

He cleared his throat and didn't reply.

"So yeah, I could do with a tutor I suppose. Are you going to assign me one or can I pick one? Just as long as you don't assign me to Shinomori-san."

"Shinomori-san doesn't have time to be dragged down by you, young lady. He is an excellent student; you should seek to emulate him."

I pinched my fingers together to imitate a quacking duck behind his back as he talked. His mouth opened and my fingers moved, "quack, quack, quack." He wasn't really paying me the slightest mind.

"We are going to discuss your academic standing with your grandfather this morning." He glanced back at me, practically beaming. I wasn't sure if it was viciousness or evil success but it was definitely a sort of gloating.

"Hmmmmm, you invited Jiya? You didn't leave him alone in your office or anything did you? He likes to go through drawers and desks and stuff. I've told him not to do that but he really doesn't listen to me anymore." I was lying, of course, through my precious white little teeth but it was worth it to see his feet speed up like that. He was even trying to look so calm but I could see his expression flicker.

Score one for me! Following him into the teacher's office where the cubicles were set up I felt my victor fading. Teacher's meeting… I felt doom closing in.

* * *

White Day.

The day when boys gave gifts back to the girls who had given them something. It was a sweet idea, certainly.

It loomed on the horizon like a giant specter determined to rip the souls out of mankind and feed the remaining bloody parts to its ghastly transparent ghost fish or something. It was tomorrow and I… I… I felt like such a… I don't know.

I hate White Day! I really did hate it and I had a perfectly good reason. I never got anything.

No one sent chocolates to sweet Makimachi Misao; it was a serious crime, especially being that I was such a candy-lover!

Kaoru and geek-bait were really working out well. Though I wanted to, I couldn't hold it against her despite the fact that it was throwing me really off kilter. I felt like an anchored ship being battered by a storm that never stopped. White Day was tomorrow and I realized one thing I hated about myself at that moment.

I was a coward.

I was afraid and I was totally skipping school. What truly scared me is that Shinomori-san would give me nothing and I completely expected that, but it was the ugly hope that he would give me something that bothered me.

I couldn't kill the hope no matter how unrealistic I knew it was. It wouldn't go away. It wouldn't. I tried. I explained it to myself a hundred times.

So I wasn't going. It didn't exist. There would be no White Day for me, I hated it, I wasn't going and no mortal force could make me. Had the Shinomori chocolate incident not happened, and the Sano weirdo kissing not happened, I probably would've braved the storm, pulled up anchor and sailed into the chaos. But as it was, I couldn't. Tomorrow would suck, I'd get up and go out like I was heading to school, I tuck a change of clothes in my bag, I'd hop on the bullet train and I'd hang out farther up town in a dark shop where no one would recognize me. Maybe I could pretend I was sick and having to run errands for the family… who knows, I'd think of something then.

Discouraged, I turned out my light and went to bed.

* * *

Shinomori worked at a sports store near the café he _used_ to work at. So I made a mental note to avoid such places. I didn't even want a _chance_ of running into him. Not even a tiny chance. 

I woke, dressed, pretended to be my normal would-be bouncy self and stepped out. Kaoru was not waiting for me and this I expected. She would be far too busy gushing to her mirror and trying to make herself look perfect, I know, she told me so on the phone last night.

Something like "Oh! I can't wait to see what Kenshin gets me! I bet it will be-" I set the phone down at that point. I walked down the street and skipped over a few heading to the train station. Halfway there I slipped into a store, hit the bathroom, changed my clothes and slipped back out.

Cleverly disguised, I was about to hit the street of Kyoto and party!

Or… you know… not party. Partying would draw attention to me. I hit the train station and caught a ride. I wasn't sure where I was going, but I had the feeling I'd know when I got there.

Well, okay, as long as Shinomori or Sano weren't there, it was okay.


	5. Chapter 5

Chocolates & Balloons

Part V: Final

* * *

I wasted the whole day.

When I say "wasted", I mean wasted. Not like "drunk" wasted, just… being totally and completely lame "wasted". I walked around, I bought myself some lunch, I had a couple of sodas, I bought some gummy worms, and I walked around some more… I didn't buy anything to take home, of course, not that he (Jiya) wouldn't know I hadn't gone to school.

Kaoru would probably call my house. "_Where's Misao? Why didn't she come to school today? Is she sick, should I come over and help out?"_

Not that she wasn't considerate but I don't want Kaoru anywhere near my house when I'm sick or otherwise. Her cooking can kill, don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Not to say that I'm a chef or anything but… I can cook when I'm really, really hungry.

Yeah.

So, anyway, I went back home about the end of school time, I changed into my school uniform, I sneaked into the house and crept into my room. Then I changed again and went back downstairs. No one seemed to know anything was amiss. I called out that I was leaving and quickly dashed away. None of them stopped me.

Now I just had to intercept Kaoru… Oh! I needed a freaking cell phone! It briefly occurred to me that she could be with geek-bait because it was White Day and she would call me later in the evening. Yet as I scurried about the city looking for her, I found I was clueless as to where the girl could be.

I ended up sitting in the café that Shinomori used to work in. No one was more surprised than I was when Megumi sat down across from me. Oddly enough the first thing on my mind was something totally unrelated to her presence.

"Do you have a cell phone?" I asked.

She blinked and nodded.

"Could I borrow it a sec?" I asked. I never was one for being indirect.

She agreed and I was… well… thrilled. I called Kaoru's house, she wasn't there, I called my house, and she wasn't there either. I slid the phone back with a scowl. Now, don't get confused... Megumi and I knew one another but not really well so I figured she wanted something by coming so directly over to me. We weren't exactly friends but I didn't think we were rivals or enemies or anything and then… like a light bulb, I recalled the Sano incident.

"So I hear the rooster broke your wrist," she started.

"Huh? Oh, well, not really. He threw something at me and I tried to dodge and fell, actually I really wish I hadn't." I frowned. "Why, he say he did?"

"No." She sipped her coffee as she stared at me.

"What do you want?" I didn't want to sit here with her, I had to stop Kaoru from telling my… Ah! The freaking school would call my house, wouldn't they?

"_I would like to know why Makimachi-san was absent from class today…_"

That Takamoto was bad news… bad. I shot to my feet but Megumi stopped me cold. "Did you kiss Sano?"

I felt like a cold wind suddenly blew over my whole body. "No, but he kissed me though. You should tell him not to do that, I don't think the general public would appreciate it, I didn't."

She looked up at me and she was glaring. "Do you like him?"

"No," I answered immediately. "I like someone else. Sano likes you, remember? What happened, you two break up or something?"

"We weren't going out," she stiffly reminded me.

I shrugged. I rather thought they were and it was obvious, even if they weren't 'going out', that they were very clearly hung up over one another. "Whatever. Just leave me out of it. I don't need the hassle and I had a lot more fun when I could just say whatever I wanted and now I feel all awkward about stuff. He's not supposed to do that. It's just… imposing or something."

"So you don't like him then?" she asked me. She had ceased glaring at me and was now staring at the empty seat in front of her. I was still standing at the end of the table very prepared to leave.

"No. I mean, I do like him but I don't want him kissing me. I don't like him like _that._"

Megumi nodded, looking preoccupied and I hesitated. "Have you seen Kaoru?" I asked.

It was a total long shot. They knew each other too, everyone knew everyone. Maybe not very well, but… wait; they did know each other, didn't they? I thought…it didn't matter.

"No, I haven't seen her," Megumi answered sedately.

I turned and quickly left. I ran actually. I ended up running almost all the way home.

* * *

"I only spent the entire afternoon looking for you! Were you with geek-bait?"

"Stop calling him that, would you, Misao? I don't call Shinomori names."

I laughed. "I'd like to see his face when he overhears _that_," I shot back.

"That doesn't explain where you were on Friday," Kaoru huffed. "You didn't show up in class, Takamoto asked me like 4 times where you were like I knew or something."

"Sorry, I know I should've come. Ah, well, until next year. How is geek-bait anyway?"

I didn't really care and she didn't really care that I didn't care, she just took the topic and ran with it. I didn't hear a word. We entered the classroom and she went on until he appeared with Sano. I glowered and rolled my eyes.

Lame holiday.

Lame school.

Lame boys in lame school.

"Makimachi, you were notably absent Friday, why is that?" I looked up to see Takamoto glaring at me. I glanced over at Kaoru as though to say "_see, I told you so_, _there's the evil little glare,_" but she wasn't paying attention.

I thought fast.

"I was sick."

Lame excuse, I know.

"Were you? You've made a fine recovery I see."

"I'm better," I answered. "Although, now that you mention it, Takamoto-sensei…" I started toward his desk. "I am feeling a bit dizzy, what do you think I should do?"

"I think you should return to your seat," he advised.

"Are you sure? What if I get really bad and fall out of my chair? I did that once already over the weekend; fell right out of my bed onto the floor and Jiya yelled at me… actually, I had a very bad weekend, sir."

"Makimachi-san, your weekend is of no concern to me, take your seat."

"Okay," I frowned at him. "But don't say I didn't warn you and then accuse me of 'acting up' in class. Jiya got very mad the last time you called him here and then saying how you didn't have anything interesting in your desk drawers** at all**."

He was going to kill me one day, not literally just… freak out or something. I was expecting it, I was, but he just sort of stood there so I headed back to my chair and flopped into it.

It was a total blur to me.

When the lunch hour came I got up and left the classroom. My classmates pushed their desks together into little groups and ate and chatted as they always did but I didn't feel like eating and I didn't feel like sitting. I felt uneasy about everything.

I didn't see Sano until it was too late to avoid him though.

"Yo, Weasel, just wanted to say sorry and stuff about.. you know, that thing."

I nodded. "Sure. Just don't do it again or I'll have to beat you up and prove you're a limp noodle after all."

His lips quirked.

"Plus, Megumi confronted me about, like I was trying to steal you or something." I rolled my eyes dramatically.

He scratched his head awkwardly and I stopped in a virtually empty hall and looked out the window.

Sano followed along. "Yeah, she told me to stop hanging around her 'cause I was annoying and a slacker and she wasn't interested in men who were poor and useless." He sounded very dejected about it.

"Oh? Is that why you manhandled me in the hallway? Jerk," I muttered. I didn't really mean it and I think he knew that because he sort of grinned and sort of looked sorry.

Then he scoffed at me. "Best kiss you ever got, Weasel, who you trying to kid?"

I scowled. "Idiot. She seemed sorry she may have said that so don't hold it against her, would you?"

He paused.

"Maybe she was just annoyed and spoke without thinking. When she confronted me she seemed upset to think that anything was happening with you and me."

"And you told her what?"

"The truth," I replied simply. "Now go and find her and make an idiot out of yourself and win her back."

He scratched his head again, looking awkward again. "Right…" he sounded skeptical.

"Never know till you try, right?" I asked cheerfully, grinning at him.

I started walking away and he didn't call me back. I didn't have to be back in class until 1, so I wouldn't be.

When class ended, an unfortunate number of hours later, I was tired. Takamoto, however, was thankfully long gone. He taught us twice a day now, once in the morning and in the afternoon. He was substituting for another teacher in math class and that was no picnic.

Kaoru and geek-bait were out the door together so I was in no rush to leave. I found Himura Kenshin was a bit… annoying. He was a nice guy and all but, well, who cares? I didn't want to be hanging around with Kaoru & company.

I dropped my head on the desk and closed my eyes. I couldn't go to club so all I really had to do was go home. I wasn't even on cleaning duty this week, sweet. When the noise quieted I looked up to see two of my classmates were already working. I wouldn't stay and get in the way, or worse, get roped into helping clean the classroom.

I headed for the locker room to change my shoes and leave.

When I got there I found my locker door was being blocked. Or … _guarded _if that's a better word and not by Sano having taken offense at the earlier "limp noodle" remark, but Shinomori. He had his back to the lockers so I wasn't sure if it was purposeful or by chance, but what was he waiting for?

He was certainly staring right at me.

"Were you really sick?"

He sounded so skeptical? Could I truly be doubted? Did I look like I wasn't innocent? Perhaps my face betrayed my thoughts because he quirked an eyebrow at me.

"Uh… no. I was… um… busy. It was a mental-health day; I was overwhelmed, overworked, and overtaxed. My brain was leaking from my ears, so maybe I _was _sick."

Sometimes I should just shut up, I knew that, but I didn't really… well, I couldn't stop it. When I get nervous, I chatter and if Shinomori can make anyone _anything_, its nervous.

He didn't really say anything, okay, he didn't say anything at all, not at first but he did stand straight up, away from my locker. I had the somewhat hopeful thought that maybe he had actually been waiting for me after all.

He moved a few steps away and that's when I noticed two things. One, he was carrying a bag that _wasn't_ his school bag and that I couldn't see through it. The second thing was he was standing next to a trash can. I just sort of looked at him before moving toward my locker to get my shoes. How did I know what he was here for anyway?

_Don't assume_… I told myself.

I had barely slipped my street shoes on when he spoke up again.

"These things, they were for you."

My heart leapt into my throat and felt like it was trying to bust out. I glanced to where he was standing to see the bag was full of little boxes. A whole bag?

"Uh…"

Okay, don't get the wrong impression. I didn't have a boat load of them, just 5 or 6 but I was flattered and flustered and felt so appreciated, it was a fantastic moment. Until, of course, I was abruptly reminded I was standing in front of Shinomori Aoshi – human rock – as he suddenly took the entire bag and tossed them whole into the trash.

I could've screamed.

I think I did.

My hands were plastered to my reddened cheeks in horror. Threw them away!

"They were from a few of your classmates and a few from boys that aren't in our class, but you can't have them," he stated simply.

"Shinomori! You have serious trash issues! You can't just throw everything away!" I blurted it out without thinking.

He didn't so much as blink.

"Why _can't_ I have them?" I snapped. "They were mine, weren't they? People finally start taking the candy tributes line seriously only to have my precious tributes tossed away?"

I wasn't outraged but I certainly was upset and not happy, not the least.

He just turned and shuffled through his school bag a moment before producing a box. A gift-wrapped box from Shinomori's bag!

From _his _own bag!

I could've danced right there.

Wait… it was mine, right?

He handed it over to me and I reached for it.

OH YEAH!

I could've danced!

I might have danced, I'm not sure, but I don't remember him giving me any 'are you out of your mind' looks, so maybe I didn't.

I took the gift and sat down. "Can I open it?"

"Are you involved with Sagara?" his voice was so deep and even and just... heavenly! I wonder if I could tell him I loved his voice without freaking him out?

Ah… right, right, the kiss, he'd seen that little fiasco, hadn't he?

"No."

He nodded succinctly and stood back, his arms crossed looking for all the world as if he just happened to be standing there and I just happened to be sitting there and we didn't know one another at all. I eagerly ripped open my gift.

With the pretty paper crumbled and torn and now resting on the floor at my ankles I lifted the box cover off.

It was… a pair of black gloves. I stared a moment, my eyes tracing the large pink star shapes on the back of each glove. It read "star" on each.

G-gloves?

I reached and pulled one out to find it was silky soft and rubbed it against my cheek. "Ooohh."

I glanced back down to see that something else was peeking out from beneath the gloves. It was a candy box, I could tell already. I pulled the other glove away just to see but there it was.

Gourmet chocolates.

I squealed happily. "Candies… sweet candies…" I sang and then laughed. "But why gloves?" I didn't even realize I said that out loud until he answered.

"You're always running around with nothing on your hands," he answered.

He… noticed my hands?

I smiled. I wanted to leap up and tackle him but I also didn't want to annoy him. I couldn't imagine why he'd gotten me a gift; he couldn't have felt obligated, could he? Then I realized that he probably did and so I didn't leap up and hug him.

"This is from you?"

I thought it was and it seemed to be but… no one likes to be wrong. What if someone asked him to give it to me?

"…. Yes." He stood there a bit tensely, his shoulders square and straight.

"Thank you very much, Shinomori-san, it was really very considerate of you."

It was totally unlike me to say stuff like that. Not to say that I didn't, just… not very often. I was never accused of being over polite.

He tensed even futher immediately. "You don't like it."

"What? Of course I do! I just… I didn't want to… you know… annoy you or anything by acting like my usual idiot self so…

He looked away from me. "I don't want you to accept any of those other things. I only want you to take mine."

My eyes widened. Was there a message in there or was I assuming too much?

"Okay," I answered.

He glanced at me. "Okay?"

"I've been _trying_ to break the habit of assuming things for like weeks now so if you're asking me not to accept other stuff, okay, if you're asking me more than that then you'll have to say so directly."

He paused a moment. "Would you like to go out and have a cup of tea, Makimachi?"

I nodded. "That's a good start. You could've proclaimed your undying love for me, but we can work up to that." I grinned. I could've floated around the world!

Something occurred ot me though before we left the school. "Did you throw away my chocolates?"

He stopped at the front school doors. "What?"

"My Valentine candy, did you throw it away?"

He stared at me. "After all the trouble I went through to hint to that boy so he would tell you?"

What?

What?

WHAT?

He… he… just… Yahiko and… they were… cohorts? Then… why did he tell me…

"I was having a bad day, I apologize. I didn't mean to be short with you."

"You're serious?" I asked. I was struck with disbelief.

"I am," he replied soberly.

"You're sure? This isn't some cruel joke, because that would be mean, Shinomori-san and I don't think I've done anything to deserve something like that."

He stepped forward and my eyes were blurry with tears. I wanted to cry, I was trying not to but… doubt and hurt sort of all meshed together. I was on a rollercoaster of doom.

He leaned down and very gently touched his lips to mine.

The first kiss I'd always wanted with him, tainted by Sano but amazing and precious all the same with Shinomori.

His lips had barely parted from mine when I spoke. "Can I call you Aoshi?"

It was the first time I ever saw him smirk.

It was amazing! Sexy and flirty and…awesome!

"May I call you 'Misao?'"

I nodded. "You can call me anything you want," I answered readily. "Except 'weasel' or 'weasel girl' because I hate those names. So I can call you Aoshi, right?"

"Yes."

"Sweet!" I declared as we stepped out of the school doors.

He didn't touch me as we left. No gushy hand holding or his arm across my waist or anything but I was with him and he was acknowledging me next to him and that was a good place to start.

Much later at the café where we ended up, I was back to thinking of school and our esteemed classmates. "So, come tomorrow I can declare that I own you and if anyone touches you I'll maim, them, right?" I asked.

He just glanced at me silently. I think he was hiding a smirk behind his teacup. But the important thing here is that he didn't say "no."

I grinned.

It was perfect.

Absolutely perfect.

* * *

The End. 

AN: That was so sweet! I'm glad I wrote this all the way through. Totally worth the little journey.


End file.
